uding act of this tragedy, for a final glance at
four of its black heroes and martyrs as they appeared to the slave
judges who tried them, and to whose hostile pen we are indebted for this
last impressive picture of their courage, their fortitude and their
greatness of soul. Here it is: "When Vesey was tried, he folded his arms
and seemed to pay great attention to the testimony, given against him,
but with his eyes fixed on the floor. In this situation he remained
immovable, until the witnesses had been examined by the court, and
cross-examined by his counsel, when he requested to be allowed to
examine the witnesses himself. He at first questioned them in the
dictatorial, despotic manner, in which he was probably accustomed to
address them; but this not producing the desired effect, he questioned
them with affected surprise and concern for bearing false testimony
against him; still failing in his purpose, he then examined them
strictly as to dates, but could not make them contradict themselves. The
evidence being closed, he addressed the court at considerable length * *
* When he received his sentence the tears trickled down his cheeks."

I cannot, of course, speak positively respecting the exact nature of
the thought or feeling which lay back of those sad tears. But of this I
am confident that they were not produced by any weak or momentary fear
of death, and I am equally sure that they were not caused by remorse for
the part which he had taken, as chief of a plot to give freedom to his
race. Perhaps they were wrung from him by the Judas-like ingratitude and
treachery, which had brought his well-laid scheme to ruin. He was about
to die, and it was Wrong not Right which with streaming eyes he saw
triumphant. Perhaps, in that solemn moment, he remembered the time,
years before, when he might have sailed for Africa, and there have
helped to build, in freedom and security, an asylum for himself and
people, where all of the glad dreams of his strenuous and stormy life
might have been realized, and also how he had put behind him the
temptation, "because" as he expressed it, "he wanted to stay and see
what he could do for his fellow creatures in bondage." At the thought of
it all, the triumph of slavery, the treachery of black men, the
immedicable grief which arises from wasted labors and balked purposes,
and widespreading failures, is it surprising that in that supreme moment
hot tears gushed from the eyes of that stricken bu